Giant Waterwheels

Giant Waterwheels is an original illustration set in Orontes Valley, Syria. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is mediterranean — hot dry summers, wet winters.

A giant wooden waterwheel several storeys tall turns at a river bend, its rim boxes spilling water at the top of the turn into a raised stone aqueduct channel. Orchards spread beyond, and the summer late-afternoon light is warm and dusty.

Why is this water wheel powered by the river it lifts from?

The wheel is powered by the river it lifts from: current turns the paddles, boxes on the rim scoop water at the bottom and tip it out at the top into a channel running to fields above river level. No external power, no pump. It works only on a river with steady flow and a flat valley floor that needs irrigating in a dry summer.

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